Ralph Nader blasts Mark Pryor on minimum wage

Consumer activist Ralph Nader unleashed a blast at Sen. Mark Pryor Monday, accusing the Arkansas Democrat of becoming too beholden to Wal-Mart at the expense of low wage workers in his home state.

Pryor was conspicuously absent from last month’s vote in the Senate when fellow Democrats tried unsuccessfully to advance a White House-backed bill raising the wage to $10.10 per hour. And in a letter to the senator, Nader lampooned the contributions from Wal-Mart to Pryor’s political committees over the past year—saying the steady flow of money from the giant Arkansas-based retailer translated to something more: $12 per hour for the senator.

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“It seems paying senators like you $12 an hour is a better return on their investment than paying their own workers’ wages,” Nader wrote. “Your failure to raise the minimum wage ensures that Wal-Mart executives profit from the federal assistance such as food stamps and housing aid that subsidizes Wal-Mart’s miserly wages.”

Given his tough reelection fight in November, Pryor’s fellow Democrats have largely given him a bye on the wage fight. And in response to Nader, Pryor’s campaign pointed to the fact that he has embraced an Arkansas referendum initiative in November to raise the state’s minimum wage to $8.50 per hour.

In an op-ed piece last month, Pryor wrote that while the higher $10.10 per hour wage “might make sense for more affluent places like California or New York, I believe it could have a negative impact on employers’ ability to continue to provide jobs in a less wealthy state like Arkansas … That’s why a gradual increase to $8.50 is supported by Republicans, Democrats, the business community and faith leaders across our state. To me, it’s just good old fashioned Arkansas common sense.”

A Pryor aide added that the senator only missed the April vote –the sole Democrat to do so—because he was at home helping in recovery efforts from tornados which had had hit Arkansas days before. “Senator Pryor missed votes that week to be here helping the on-the-ground recovery efforts,” the aide said.

But Nader, who worked with the senator’s father, David Pryor, in the past, said the son was making a mistake politically if he thought workers would ignore his failure to support the Senate bill.

“This idea that they don’t lose votes but they gain money if they come out against public opinion on minimum wage is a bizarre aspect of the Democratic Party,” Nader said in an interview. “This is the heart of Wal-Mart worker land. The Wal-Mart workers may toe the line inside the store, but in the privacy of the precinct, they are going to ask who stands on our side?”

“That’s the cancer that eats at this party and decays it,” Nader said. “He’s so cautious, looking over his shoulder afraid of every shadow.”

Thus far in the 2013-2014 election cycle, the Center for Responsive Politics lists $48,350 in contributions to Pryor’s campaign or leadership political committees from Wal-Mart’s PAC or individuals, including lobbyists, associated with the company.

Of these dollars, Nader’s letter makes the most of $25,000 that went to Pryor’s leadership PAC. Assuming 52 weeks at 40 hours a piece, that comes out to just over $12 an hour.

Nader’s letter next draws on an April 2011 study by the Center for Labor Research and Education at the University of California at Berkeley which estimated that a $12 per hour minimum wage would add just 46 cents per shopping trip by customers to Wal-Mart.

“To pay their hourly workers as much as they pay you each year, it would only cost Walmart customers 46 cents per visit,” Nader wrote.